nope, those things are bs. You need factory unlock, if the phone was stolen, or not out of contract and swapped out you can't get factory unlock not can you get international unlock. You can try one of the online unlock companies... doubt it will work though.
Unlocking a phone is impossible, unless it came factory unlocked. When someone tells you that their phone is "unlocked" it generally means it is unlocked with a specific service provider.
Now there is some caveat to this - if it's on a GSM network, you MAY be able to find the service provider in your area and request that they look at it/activate it.
Also, iPhone 5 has SIM cards that you can remove (carefully) - SIM cards are what's used to activate the phone if I remember correctly...